In the electronics industry, pick-and-place systems or assembly machines are used to populate printed circuit boards (PCBs). The pick-and-place systems include a variety of components for building a PCB. For example, a pick-and-place system typically includes a positioning device having a number of nozzles attached thereto. Using the nozzles, the positioning device selectively picks up components, held in feeders, from predetermined locations on an assembly table and places them on a substrate such as a PCB. When the PCB is completely populated, the pick-and-place system populates another PCB. These systems save a great deal of time and labor in populating PCBs.
One or more of the nozzles, however, may not be properly attached to or may be missing from the positioning device. For example, a nozzle may be off-center or positioned too high relative to a component presentation area of the pick-and-place system, or the nozzle may be bent. In addition, vacuum forces provided through the nozzles may be insufficiently low. As a result of such errors, PCBs may run through assembly without receiving important components, or with components improperly placed thereon. This results in undesirable inspection of PCBs and the pick-and-place system, which results in down-time during assembly.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus for testing a nozzle of a pick-and-place system, and one especially suitable for testing a variety of characteristics of a nozzle.